Work Text:
He knows Kim Dokja is nothing but a liar; a conman. (Knew, was.)
Yoo Joonghyuk stares down at the cold and dead corpse that is Kim Dokja, his lifeless body still clutching onto his Mother. Yoo Joonghyuk can see the tear stains on his cheeks.
Could he even call Kim Dokja a liar? That guy had a clever way with words, never promising anything he couldn't keep. Then again, if he had the gall to try and convince Yoo Joonghyuk not to regress, the least he could do is try and stay alive himself. (Yoo Joonghyuk knows how much death hurts, isn't this man tired?)
He’s annoying, very annoying. It pisses him off beyond belief how Kim Dokja simply knows everything about him, he understands. And yet—Yoo Joonghyuk cannot understand Kim Dokja.
This guy dealt with everything on his own, making so much more progress than Yoo Joonghyuk in his past regressions, he knows everything. He said he was a prophet. Does Yoo Joonghyuk believe him?
He leans down and picks up Kim Dokja’s corpse, his own battered body screaming at him along the way. The tears are something new, something interesting. He thought Kim Dokja hated his Mother. Another thing he doesn't understand. There’s too much in his head, all because of this one man.
Kim Dokja’s companions are approaching now, he uses the left side of his coat to cover Kim Dokja’s mutilated, missing legs. He doesn’t know why he does, they're going to see anyway. Who is he when he’s around Kim Dokja?
There’s something in his chest. He’s angry. Kim Dokja willingly saved him, a regressor, from the disaster of floods, Shin Yoosung. He jumped in front of him and earned a giant hole in his stomach. He told Yoo Joonghyuk to kill him for coins. (Can he call Kim Dokja cruel, after all he’s done?) He remembers how he flew into a blind rage afterward, there wasn’t a single thought in his head. In that moment all he could do was swing his sword with the intent of revenge. How annoying.
His hands unconsciously tighten around Kim Dokja’s body. He feels the lifeless bones creak under the pressure. Right, he still has to get this guy back for hitting him. He hates following him around. (Had he always been this way around him? Even in the very beginning, he stuck around in the station much longer than he should’ve. What was he hoping for?)
Kim Dokja’s companions are in front of him now. “Get another coffin.”
As the people standing before him start to react, he remembers what Kim Dokja said. ‘Release your hand and get lost, you damn son of a bitch.’ Annoying, annoying, annoying. He was delusional to think Kim Dokja would come back alive after hearing those words. He’s still gullible.
Both of his legs were gone, his arm was mangled, he was entering the body of an outer god. Surviving was never on the table. Yoo Joonghyuk is stupid.
Ah, right. Kim Dokja’s Mother had also said something interesting, something confusing. Kim Dokja supposedly spoke to her about him, which was very annoying. (She also said she has to send Kim Dokja back to reality, what is the reality she speaks of?) Those two are similar, Kim Dokja probably hates that fact. Yoo Joonghyuk had also said some strange things back then, odd.
…Why does Kim Dokja’s Mother dislike him? Again, annoying.
Lee Hyunsung reaches to take Kim Dokja’s body from him, he doesn’t want to hand it over—which is exactly why he does.
Kim Dokja is his companion. It's reasonable for him to be… upset over his death. (But is it reasonable for the regressor, Yoo Joonghyuk to be hurt? Then again that’s all he, the regressor, knew; after all this time you’d think he’d learn.) When Kim Dokja took him to that rooftop and just spoke to him, it had such a profound effect; when Kim Dokja gave him that look, the look that said more than any words could, something clicked inside him. Something that was missing, perhaps.
He stands alone as he watches that man’s companions walk off carrying both him and his Mother. (Is he still alone?)
He’s going to have to stick around for the next three days and wait for that fool to revive. He needs Kim Dokja, his list of annoyances keeps growing.
How could he do it? How did Kim Dokja manage to keep the story this way? He made the simple complicated and the complicated simple. This regression was better than any of his other rounds, and it was made by one foolish man. (Was Kim Dokja sacrificing himself because he cared too much, or too little?) Without him Yoo Joonghyuk would have perished in the theater dungeon, or the disaster of floods, if not those two then in Peaceland against the shadow of a constellation.
He doesn’t understand.
He does not understand Kim Dokja.
Would Kim Dokja even let him try? (Probably not.)
Kim Dokja will live again, in exactly 72 hours he’ll rouse from his coffin and continue on as if nothing happened. Yoo Joonghyuk supposes they’re similar in that way, always moving forward; never stopping to think. (Or thinking too much.)
How else could they be similar? How unlike himself, he wants to know more. No, that's not right—he needs to know more. It’s a burning feeling just beneath his skin, nestling itself into his bones. Kim Dokja knows him, understands him. (Does he really?) He just wants to return the favor.
This feeling… is very odd. He doesn’t want to describe it more than he should, he’s not even sure he can.
But he’s here alone and watching Kim Dokja’s companions as they carry his body off further into the fields, so maybe he should try.
No, he can’t. (He can. It’s something he hasn't felt in a very long time. Something warm, something cruel, something that will only make him hurt. Maybe he's lying—it’s more likely to be something cold, something sweet, something that will make him continue forward. He hates both options. Both will get him nowhere in the scenarios.)
He doesn’t have time to think about such useless things, he should be training. This was another close call. He’ll stick close until Kim Dokja revives, he needs him to continue the scenario. (He needs to see him alive.)
…It’ll be a long three days.